Senior ministers were working to weaken water conservation orders and advance irrigation in Canterbury at the same time as they were telling the environment movement they were committed to collaborating on water management, the Green Party says.
Senior ministers were working to weaken water conservation orders and advance irrigation in Canterbury at the same time as they were telling the environment movement they were committed to collaborating on water management, the Green Party says.
Party co-leader Russel Norman said last night he had documents obtained under the Official Information Act which revealed that as early as September last year Prime Minister John Key and several senior ministers had identified water conservation orders on the Rakaia and Hurunui rivers as potential barriers to advancing irrigation in Canterbury, and discussed options for removing or circumventing them.
"Water conservation orders are the national parks of rivers, any weakening of them is a direct attack on the environment," he said.
"John Key's not-so-hidden agenda is to advance irrigation schemes in Canterbury for the benefit of big dairy companies at the expense of our wild rivers."
Dr Norman said the documents showed Mr Key took part in several meetings with other ministers after September last year at which ways to circumvent or amend the process for water conservation orders in Canterbury were explicitly discussed.
"This shows a lack of good faith on the part of the government in dealing with the Land and Water Forum, which has been tasked with collaboratively exploring and making recommendations about future water management," Dr Norman said.
"These papers show that ministers were actively working with irrigation applicants on the Hurunui and Rakaia rivers and were drafting legislation to progress their back door representations for irrigation on these rivers."
